On land, dramatic canyons such as the Grand Canyon are carved over time by flowing rivers. The ocean does not have rivers capable of cutting into rock on that scale. Known as the King's Trough Complex, this vast underwater structure stretches roughly 500 kilometers and includes a series of parallel trenches and deep basins. A team of international researchers led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has uncovered new clues. Their findings appear in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-Cubed), published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). "Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes -- that is, movements of the Earth's crust -- played a central role in the formation of the King's Trough," says lead author Dr. Antje Dürkefälden, marine geologist at GEOMAR. The new research indicates that between about 37 and 24 million years ago, a plate boundary separating Europe and Africa temporarily passed through this part of the North Atlantic. As the tectonic plates shifted, the crust in this region was pulled apart and fractured, opening progressively from east to west, much like a zipper being undone. An important piece of the puzzle lies even deeper. Known as a mantle plume, this steady column of molten rock originates far below the surface. "This thickened, heated crust may have made the region mechanically weaker, so that the plate boundary preferentially shifted here," explains co-author PD Dr. Jörg Geldmacher, marine geologist at GEOMAR. The King's Trough offers a clear example of how deep mantle processes and shifting tectonic plates interact. The conclusions are based on data collected during research expedition M168 aboard the research vessel METEOR in 2020, led by Antje Dürkefälden. They then retrieved volcanic rock samples from several parts of the trench system using a chain bag dredge. Selected samples were dated at the University of Madison (Wisconsin, USA). Additional bathymetric data came from the Portuguese research centre Estrutura de Missão para a Extensão da Plataforma Continental (EMEPC). Materials provided by Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR). Note: Content may be edited for style and length. The Moon Is Still Shrinking and Scientists Just Found New Moonquake Zones Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.

We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Scientists are always looking for ways to make inherently brittle materials, such as concrete or ceramic, tougher, safer, and more durable. Although this material has long been featured in jewelry shops around the world, nacre is also an architectural wonder. With the aragonite providing strength and the biopolymer providing flexibility, nacre is incredibly flexible and crack resistant—so much so that scientists from Princeton University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering wondered if this mollusk maneuver honed by half a billion years of evolution could imbue similar benefits to human building materials. “This synergy between the hard and soft components is crucial to nacre's remarkable mechanical properties,” Shashank Gupta, a co-author of the study and graduate student at Princeton, said in a press statement. “If we can engineer concrete to resist crack propagation, we can make it tougher, safer and more durable.” To achieve this lofty goal, Gupta's team crafted three types of multi-layered beams of material that alternated between cement paste sheets and a thin polymer layer. The first beam was made of these two ingredients stacked on top of one another, but the other two beams were slightly different. The first featured hexagonal grooves in the cement paste, while the second cut through the cement completely, forming hexagonal-shaped plates or “tablets.” All three beams were compared to a cast cement paste reference beam (i.e. no polymer layers or hexagonal markings at all). The resulting experiments proved that, while the reference beam was brittle with no ductility, all three beams showed significantly increased ductility and toughness. “In other words, we intentionally engineer defects in the brittle materials as a way to make them stronger by design.” Stronger and safer cement wouldn't just be a boon for construction, but also the health of the planet, as the production of cement makes up roughly 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But while the study shows promising results for these nacre-inspired materials, this multi-layered, hexagonal-plated technique will need a bit more tweaking before construction companies start trading out mortar for mollusks. Mystery on Easter Island: More Moai Found in Lake Archaeology Students Dug Up a Mass Viking Grave Scientists Found Particles That May Change Physics NASA Found a Secret U.S. Army Base Buried in Ice

You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Understanding the potential health implications of living near nuclear power plants is important given the renewed interest in nuclear energy as a low-carbon power source. Here we show that U.S. counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants have higher cancer mortality rates than those farther away. Using nationwide mortality data from 2000-2018, we assess long-term spatial patterns of cancer mortality in relation to proximity to nuclear facilities while accounting for socioeconomic, demographic, behavioral, environmental, and healthcare factors. Cancer mortality is higher across multiple age groups in both males and females, with the strongest associations among older adults, males aged 65–74 and females aged 55–64. While our findings cannot establish causality, they highlight the need for further research into potential exposure pathways, latency effects, and cancer-specific risks, emphasizing the importance of addressing these potentially substantial but overlooked risks to public health. Nuclear power plants have long been a major source of energy production worldwide, playing a critical role in electricity generation. With about 60 additional reactors under construction and over 110 planned, nuclear energy remains an important source. In addition, approximately 30 countries are considering or initiating nuclear power programs (World Nuclear Association (WNA)). The United States began generating electricity from commercial nuclear power plants in 1958 and is now the world's largest producer of nuclear energy, contributing about 30% of global nuclear electricity. As of August 1, 2023, the U.S. operates 93 commercial nuclear reactors across 54 plants in 28 states, providing a significant portion of the nation's electricity. The average reactor age is approximately 42 years, reflecting the long-term reliance on nuclear energy for power generation (WNA, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). Nuclear power plants emit radioactive pollutants that can disperse into the surrounding environment, leading to potential human exposure through inhalation, ingestion, and direct contact. These pollutants can be transported through air, water, and soil, contributing to long-term environmental contamination1. Populations residing near nuclear power plants may experience low-level chronic exposure to ionizing radiation via environmental release pathways. While our study does not include dosimetry, ionizing radiation is a well-established carcinogen2,3,4,5,6,7 and thus motivates investigation into proximity-based exposure patterns. Given these concerns, numerous studies have examined whether living near nuclear power plants is associated with an increased risk of cancer, but their findings have been inconsistent. Globally, some studies have reported no association between proximity to nuclear power plants and increased cancer risk8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. While other studies have found significant associations between residential proximity to nuclear power plants and increased cancer incidence16,17,18,19,20. Despite the importance and prevalence of nuclear power plants in the U.S., epidemiologic research regarding their health impacts remains rare. Most U.S. studies have focused on individual plants or limited regions, with only a few national assessments to date - many of which relied on fixed distance cutoffs to classify exposed populations8,9,11,12,19,21,22,23,24,25. These studies often focus on a single facility and its surrounding communities, which restricts their statistical power to detect effects and ability to capture broader exposure patterns. Furthermore, differences in study design, exposure assessment methods, and geographic scope make it difficult to draw generalizable conclusions. In this work, we assess the association between county-level proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality across the United States from 2000 to 2018. We find that counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants have higher cancer mortality rates, with stronger associations observed among older adults. These associations remain consistent across multiple sensitivity analyses and proximity definitions. The results highlight spatial patterns of cancer risk in relation to nuclear power generation and emphasize the importance of evaluating potential long-term health implications of nuclear energy infrastructure in population-scale studies. Figure 1 presents the county-level nuclear power plants proximity estimates for the year 2000, illustrating the 10-year average proximity of the sum of inverse-distance (in kilometers) nuclear power plants proximity to operational nuclear power plants. Proximity was calculated by summing the inverse-distance weights from all nuclear plants within 200 km of each county center. Map showing the spatial distribution of aggregated inverse-distance proximity (1/km) to operational nuclear power plants for each U.S. county in the year 2000. Darker shades (purple) indicate higher cumulative proximity from multiple plants within 200 km, and lighter shades (yellow) indicate lower proximity. County boundaries are outlined in black. Counties closer to multiple nuclear power plants had higher estimated proximity levels, as indicated by the darker shading on the map. While distance from the nearest plant played a significant role, cumulative proximities from multiple plants also contributed to variation across counties. Figure 2 presents the cumulative population distribution by nuclear power plants proximity level and its distance-equivalent representation. Proximity is calculated as the sum of inverse distances (1/d) from all operational nuclear power plants within 200 km, while the equivalent distance represents the inverse of this sum, effectively translating cumulative nuclear power plant proximity into the distance from a single nuclear power plant that would result in the same proximity level. Plot showing the cumulative U.S. population (in millions) living within increasing proximity levels (sum of inverse distances) or equivalent single-plant distances from operational nuclear power plants in 2018. The solid blue line represents the cumulative population curve, with axes labeled for both proximity (top axis) and equivalent distance (bottom axis). This figure highlights the number of individuals residing at or below each level of nuclear power plants proximity, or equivalently, within a comparable distance of a single operational nuclear power plant. Figure 3 presents the estimated associations between nuclear power plants proximity and cancer mortality, showing the coefficients and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each age group and sex. The results indicate a positive association between nuclear power plants proximity and cancer mortality, with the highest relative risk observed in the 55–64 age group for females and 10 years later (65–74) in males. Forest plot presenting regression coefficients and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between county-level proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality, stratified by age group and sex. Estimates were derived from generalized estimating equation (GEE) Poisson regression models with a log link, incorporating a population offset and robust (sandwich) variance estimators. Confidence intervals are based on two-sided statistical tests. Each observation represents an independent county–year–age–sex unit (n ≈ 290,000). Data represent independent population units, not biological or technical replicates. Horizontal bars indicate 95% CIs around model-estimated effects. Table 1 summarizes the total number of cancer deaths attributable to nuclear power plants proximity, stratified by age group and sex. The estimated number of attributable cancer deaths was lowest in the 35–44 age group, with 591 (95% CI: −538, 1696) for females and 260 (95% CI: −753, 1248) for males. The burden increased progressively with age, peaking in the 65–74 age group for females (13,976; 95% CI: 6885, 20,959) and the 65–74 age group for males (20,912; 95% CI: 12,591, 29,109). Figure 4 illustrates the relative risk of cancer mortality by equivalent plant distance, stratified by sex and age group. Curves show model-predicted relative risks (RR) of cancer mortality as a function of equivalent plant distance, stratified by sex and age group. RRs and 95% confidence intervals (shaded bands) were estimated using GEE Poisson regression models including demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, and environmental covariates. Each observation represents an independent county–year–age–sex unit (n ≈ 290,000). These plots demonstrate a consistent inverse association between distance from a nuclear plant and cancer mortality risk, with the highest relative risks observed at shorter distances and a gradual decline as distance increases. These results suggest that living near nuclear power plants is associated with increased cancer mortality risk, particularly in older populations. The estimated cancer burden attributable to nuclear power plants proximity underscores the potential public health implications of residential proximity to operational nuclear power plants. We conducted sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of our findings. First, we reran our models varying the distances to county centers from 200 km down to 100 km, in increments of 10 km, and the results remained consistent. Additionally, we varied the average proximity windows across intervals of 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, with results remaining stable. These analyses confirm that our findings are not driven by arbitrary choices in model variables or parameters, thereby reinforcing the validity of the observed associations. We assessed the relationship between long-term proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality using a spatially resolved, inverse-distance weighted proximity metric that captures cumulative contributions from multiple plants within 200 km of each U.S. county center. We observed positive associations between proximity and cancer mortality, with stronger effects in older age groups (Fig. The highest attributable cancer mortality burden was observed among individuals aged 65–74 and 75–84, particularly among males (Table 1), reflecting both greater vulnerability in older populations and latency patterns typical of environmentally related cancers. Overall, cancer mortality among individuals aged 65 and older, associated with proximity to nuclear power plants, averaged 4266 deaths per year (95% CI: 3000–9122) between 2000 and 2018. To contextualize these findings, we compared our results to estimates of mortality associated with another major energy source—coal. A recent study estimated that total all-cause mortality attributable to coal-fired power plant emissions averaged 20,909 deaths per year (95% CI: 19,091–22,727) over 22 years (1999–2020)26. While this is not a direct comparison—since our study examines cancer-caused mortality, whereas the coal study estimates all-cause mortality—our findings represent approximately 20% of the total coal-attributable deaths in their study. This comparison underscores the magnitude of cancer burden within the broader landscape of energy-related health risks. Ionizing radiation is a well-established carcinogen, with extensive epidemiologic evidence linking radiation exposure to increased cancer risk6,7,27. Some of the strongest evidence comes from studies of nuclear disasters, where high-dose radiation exposure has been consistently associated with increased cancer incidence. The Japanese atomic bomb survivor Life Span Study first identified excess leukemia deaths, which were observed were first observed about 2 years after the bombing and continued to be seen for the next 25 years after the disaster. Over time, elevated risks of solid cancers emerged, including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, liver, lung, and urinary bladder, as well as female breast, brain, thyroid, and non-melanoma skin cancers. Epidemiologic findings from Ukraine following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 have been inconsistent. A study investigating solid tumor trends 30 years after the disaster found increased incidences of colon, rectal, kidney, thyroid, breast (in women), and prostate (in men) cancers, although decreases in lung and stomach cancers were also reported32. In contrast, another study suggested that post-Chernobyl cancer incidence trends largely mirrored pre-disaster trends, implying no significant excess risk due to radiation exposure33. Studies investigating the effects of nuclear power plants on cancer incidence in surrounding communities have reported mixed findings. A study in France examining proximity to nuclear power plants and 12 cancer types found an excess incidence of bladder cancer in both males and females20. Similarly, a study in Spain investigating the Trillo and Zorita power plants reported that the risk of all cancers increased linearly with proximity to the plants17. However, other large national studies, including those conducted in the United States8,9,25, the United Kingdom15, and Canada1, have found no consistent associations between residential proximity to nuclear power plants and overall or site-specific cancer incidence or mortality. A German study focusing on pediatric cancers found a statistically significant risk ratio (RR) of 2.2 for leukemia and an RR of 1.6 for solid tumors among children under five years old living within 5 km of nuclear power plants compared to those living further away34. The relationship between nuclear power plants and cancer risk has also been examined in South Korea, Canada, and China, with conflicting results. Studies in Canada and China found no clear association between proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer incidence. A study in Ontario, Canada, reported no consistent pattern for all cancers combined or for specific cancers such as thyroid, lung, breast, stomach, colon, bladder, brain, liver, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma among populations living within 25 km of three nuclear plants1. Similarly, a study in China on the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant found no increased risk for all cancers, leukemia, or thyroid cancers36. While differences in nuclear power plant technology and emission controls may contribute to variation across studies, much of the observed heterogeneity in findings likely stems from differences in exposure assessment methods, study designs, statistical power, and outcome definitions. Many previous studies relied on binary proximity cutoffs rather than incorporating cumulative proximity from multiple plants, which may have introduced measurement error by oversimplifying exposure levels in these ecological studies. In contrast, our study uses a continuous, inverse-distance weighted nuclear power plants proximity metric, allowing for a more refined assessment of long-term exposure gradients. Additionally, studies that focus on single plants or small geographic areas may have limited statistical power, particularly when assessing rare cancers. These studies may lack sufficient case numbers to detect associations, whereas larger-scale national studies,like ours, have the advantage of higher statistical power and the ability to capture regional nuclear power plants proximity variability. First, our nuclear power plant proximity exposure assumes equal contribution from all nuclear power plants within 200 km and does not include direct radiation measurements (dosimetry). Second, we analyzed all cancer types combined, even though different malignancies have varying latency periods and radiation sensitivities. Third, our analysis was done at the county (FIPS) level because that is the resolution at which the CDC provides cancer mortality data. This ecological design does not capture individual-level exposure or outcomes and therefore limits causal inference. Moreover, our exposure metric reflects geographic proximity rather than actual radiation exposure experienced by individuals. Fourth, we did not analyze childhood cancers. These outcomes were rare in our dataset, and stratification by age group, sex, county, and year resulted in sparse data and unstable estimates. Proper evaluation of childhood cancer risk would require different modeling approaches tailored to rare outcomes. Fifth, we used a standard formula for calculating the attributable fraction (AF), which assumes a causal relationship between exposure and outcome and does not account for potential unmeasured confounding or exposure misclassification. Finally, our analysis does not incorporate residential histories, and exposure assignment was based on the geographic centroid of each county. While this limits temporal precision compared to individual-level cohort studies, there is no evidence that residential mobility is systematically related to proximity to nuclear plants. As such, any exposure measurement error is likely non-differential, which would bias results toward the null. Our study spans nearly two decades, and we also assume long-term residence stability throughout this period. Despite these limitations, to our knowledge, this is the only national study in the U.S. to examine nuclear power plant proximity and cancer mortality using a continuous proximity metric. Unlike prior studies that focused on single plants, small geographic areas or relied on fixed distance cutoffs to assign binary exposures, our approach provides a comprehensive and a continuous assessment of nuclear power plants proximity across the entire country, capturing the cumulative impact of multiple facilities over nearly two decades and enhancing statistical power to detect potential associations. Additionally, we used a continuous, inverse-distance weighted proximity metric instead of categorical proximity-based definitions, allowing for a more nuanced and comprehensive exposure assessment. We also utilized a nationally representative, long-term cancer mortality dataset from the CDC, ensuring high data completeness and broad geographic coverage. The inclusion of a full 19 years of cancer mortality data (2000–2018) and a 10-year average nuclear power plants proximity window allows for a robust temporal assessment of long-term proximity effects. We found that U.S. counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants experienced higher cancer mortality rates, with the strongest associations observed in older adults, particularly among males aged 65–74 and females aged 55–64. These results indicate a spatial association between residential proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality. This study focused exclusively on cancer mortality and did not examine neurological, cardiovascular, or other potential health outcomes associated with nuclear facilities. While current evidence remains insufficient to draw definitive causal conclusions regarding cancer risks among populations living near nuclear plants, our findings highlight an important area for future investigation. Understanding the potential long-term health implications of nuclear power generation is particularly important given the renewed interest in nuclear energy as a low-carbon solution, emphasizing the importance of addressing these potentially substantial but overlooked risks to public health. This research complies with all relevant ethical regulations. Chan School of Public Health (Ethics Board Registration Number [FWA]: FWA00002642; Study Protocol Number: IRB24-0094), which determined that the project does not involve human subjects research as defined by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations. Data on the locations and years of nuclear power plants were obtained from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) website. In addition to U.S. plants, facilities located outside the U.S. (Canada) but within 200 km of a center of a U.S. County were also included in the analysis. When available, plant-specific websites were used to verify and validate locations and operational details. Supplementary Dataset 1 provides a comprehensive list of all included plants along with their operational years, while Fig. Map illustrating the locations of all nuclear power plants (dark blue circles) and U.S. counties located within 200 km of any operational plant (light blue shaded areas) during the study period. County boundaries are outlined in black. Cancer mortality data for the contiguous U.S. from 2000 to 2018 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The dataset includes individual mortality records for all deaths, from which we filtered cancer deaths as those with an ICD-10 code beginning with ‘C', covering all malignant neoplasms. Unlike the publicly available CDC Wonder database, this dataset contains uncensored mortality records, ensuring full data coverage for all counties. Our analysis focused on cancer mortality across six age groups (35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65–74, 75–84, and 85+), stratified by sex (as per the CDC files assignment). The total number of cancer deaths across age groups and gender is summarized in Table S1 of the Supplementary Information. We controlled for selected annual county-level covariates (2000–2018) that could potentially confound the association between nuclear power plants proximity and cancer or independently relate to cancer. These covariates include educational attainment, median household income, poverty level, racial composition (White, Asian, African American), population density, temperature, relative humidity, current smoking prevalence, mean BMI, proximity to the nearest hospital, age over 65, percent of persons over 65 with ambulatory physician visits each year, and renting percentage, as detailed in Supplementary Tables S2. To estimate nuclear power plants proximity at the county level, we used a proximity-based approach, calculating the inverse of the distance (1/d) in kilometers for each unique plant-county combination, considering all plants that were operational for at least one year between 1990 and 2018 and located within 200 km of a county centroid. For each plant-county pair, we first computed 1/d for every year in which the plant was active. We then applied a 10-year average proximity to each individual plant's 1/d values to account for cumulative proximity and latency effects. Finally, for each county, we summed the average proximity 1/d values across all contributing plants, generating an annual aggregate proximity estimate at the county level. Figure 5 illustrates the geographic distribution of all nuclear power plants and the counties included in the study, while Supplementary Dataset 1 lists each plant along with its operational years. This approach allows for a continuous assessment of long-term proximity trends, ensuring that past proximity contributions remain relevant for a period even after plant closures, to better align with the latency periods relevant to many adult cancers. We analyzed yearly cancer mortality data from 2000 to 2018 for all U.S. counties within 200 km of a nuclear power plant, assessing the relationship between nuclear power plants' proximity and cancer mortality. We used a Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) Poisson regression model (Eq. 1) to estimate the association between the proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality, while adjusting for relevant county-level covariates. The list of covariates is detailed in Supplementary Table S2. The model's outcome variable was the total number of cancer deaths per year per county, stratified by sex and age group. To account for population size differences across counties and demographic groups, we included a natural log population offset (specific to each age group, county, sex, and year), allowing the model to estimate mortality rates rather than counts. This ensures that model coefficients are interpretable on the rate scale. The model used county as the clustering variable to account for within-cluster correlations over time, assuming an exchangeable correlation structure, where all observations within a county have the same correlation. Additionally, robust (sandwich) standard errors were used to ensure valid inference by adjusting for potential model misspecification and within-county correlation. λijk represents the expected number of cancer deaths in county i at year j for age group k. Cnij denotes covariate n for county i and year j. Eij represents the sum (over plants) of the inverse-distance proximity metric, and βe is its estimated effect. We stratified our analysis by sex and modeled mortality for the six age groups. For each sex-age combination, we ran separate GEE Poisson regression models to estimate the association between nuclear power plants' proximity and cancer mortality. The yearly relative risks (RRs) for cancer mortality were calculated for each county, age group, sex, and year using Eq. These RRs were used to estimate attributable mortality fractions (AFs) using Eq. To compute the total number of cancer deaths attributable to nuclear power plants' proximity during the study period (2000–2018), we first calculated yearly attributable cases separately for each county, age group, sex, and year. Next, we summed the attributable cancer deaths across all counties and years for each age group and sex. Statistical modeling, data processing, and visualization were conducted using the following R packages: geepack37 for generalized estimating equation (GEE) models, data.table38 and dplyr39 for data manipulation, sf40 and raster41 for spatial operations, and ggplot242 for visualization. The study design was observational and ecological, based on population-level data aggregated by county, year, age group, and sex. No statistical method was used to predetermine sample size. The analysis included all available observations meeting inclusion criteria (counties located within 200 km of an operational nuclear power plant with complete covariate data for 2000–2018). All analyses were conducted using pre-specified modeling approaches and reproducible R scripts. The reproducibility of results was confirmed through independent reruns of the statistical code and sensitivity analyses using alternative proximity definitions and tapering periods, which produced consistent findings. Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article. The cancer mortality data used in this study were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and are confidential; therefore, they cannot be publicly shared. Researchers may request access directly from the CDC. All other data sources used in this analysis are publicly available. The aggregated data underlying all main figures and tables are provided as a Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper. Radiation exposure and cancer incidence (1990 to 2008) around nuclear power plants in Ontario, Canada. Domestic radon exposure and childhood cancer risk by site and sex in 727 counties in the United States, 2001–2018. Dagle, G. & Sanders, C. Radionuclide injury to the lung. Lung cancer in a fluorspar mining community: I. Gilbert, E. S. Ionising radiation and cancer risks: what have we learned from epidemiology? Ron, E. Ionizing radiation and cancer risk: evidence from epidemiology. Jablon, S. Cancer in populations living near nuclear facilities: a survey of mortality nationwide and incidence in two states. Cancer incidence around the nuclear power plant Jaslovské Bohunice. Cancer mortality among populations residing in counties near the Hanford site, 1950–2000. 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Cancer incidence in adults living in the vicinity of nuclear power plants in France, based on data from the French Network of Cancer Registries. Enstrom, J. E. Cancer mortality patterns around the San Onofre nuclear power plant, 1960−1978. Clapp et al. Leukaemia near Massachusetts nuclear power plant. Morris, M. S. & Knorr, R. S. Adult leukemia and proximity-based surrogates for exposure to Pilgrim plant's nuclear emissions. Mangano, J. J. et al. Elevated childhood cancer incidence proximate to U.S. nuclear power plants. Boice, J. D. Jr, Bigbee, W. L., Mumma, M. T., Tarone, R. E. & Blot, W. J. County mortality and cancer incidence in relation to living near two former nuclear materials processing facilities in Pennsylvania—an update. Henneman, L. et al. Mortality risk from United States coal electricity generation. Keith, S., Murray, H. E. & Spoo, W. Toxicological Profile for Ionizing Radiation. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), (1999). Long-term radiation-related health effects in a unique human population: lessons learned from the atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Little, M. P. Cancer and non-cancer effects in Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Solid cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors: 1958–1998. Annex A. Epidemiological Studies of Radiation and Cancer (United Nations, New York, 2008). Ghirga, G. Cancer in children residing near nuclear power plants: an open question. Kim, J.-M. et al. Reanalysis of epidemiological investigation of cancer risk among people residing near nuclear power plants in South Korea. Long-term investigation of environmental radioactivity levels and public health around the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, China. The R package geepack for generalized estimating equations. Wickham, H. dplyr: a grammar of data manipulation. Hijmans, R. J. Raster: Geographic Data Analysis and Modeling (R package version 3.6-26). Wickham, H. Ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis (Springer-Verlag, New York, 2016). No grants or external funding were awarded for this work. Chan School of Public Health through a doctoral fellowship. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Yazan Alwadi, Barrak Alahmad, Carolina L. Zilli Vieira, David C. Christiani, Brent Coull, Joel Schwartz, John S. Evans & Petros Koutrakis Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep, and Critical Care Medicine Section, Medical Service, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA Boston Chemical Data Corp, Natick, MA, USA Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar contributed to the study's conceptualization, design, and manuscript writing. provided statistical guidance and participated in the methodology. served as the senior author and advisor on all steps. contributed to conceptualization and provided critical feedback on the initial draft. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available. Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. 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Archaeologists working alongside a roadway project discovered the seal within the remnants of a major administrative building in northern Israel. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Makach, son of Amihai, was a big enough deal in the eighth century B.C.E. Kingdom of Judah that he had his own official seal, which would have been worn around the neck. “Such seal prints are a common finding on biblical sites in the area of Judah, but their presence at a site so northern, deep within the territories of the biblical Kingdom of Israel is most surprising,” archaeologist Amir Gorzalazni said in a translated statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority. In Numbers, for example, pomegranates are brought back from Canaan to prove the fruitfulness of the new land, and the Temple of Solomon is described in 1 Kings as having its pillars adorned by a pomegranate motif. Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. Could the Universe Be Made of Just One Electron? Sounds Waves Will Power This Hot Energy Revolution Light Speed Travel Is Possible, Scientists Believe With Chainsaws, Bigger is Better—When You Need It Alien Minds Could Be Common, New Research Suggests Just Before Death, the Brain May Try to Stay Alive

Volcanic eruptions that look like single events are often the visible outcome of slow, complicated activity taking place deep underground. Beneath the surface, magma shifts position, changes chemically, and can sit for long stretches before finally erupting. To piece together what is happening below, scientists examine lava flows, rock textures, and minerals left behind at the surface. These clues help reveal the hidden magma systems that drive volcanic activity. A recent study published in Geology shows that this same complexity exists on Mars. High resolution images of the landscape and mineral measurements collected from orbit indicate that some of the planet's youngest volcanic regions have a much more detailed history than previously assumed. Instead of forming during brief, one time eruptions, these volcanoes were built by magma systems that remained active and changed over extended periods beneath the martian surface. "Our results show that even during Mars' most recent volcanic period, magma systems beneath the surface remained active and complex," says Bartosz Pieterek of Adam Mickiewicz University. Although these lava deposits look different today, they were all fed by the same underlying magma reservoir. Each phase left behind a unique mineral fingerprint, allowing researchers to track how the magma's composition shifted over time. "These mineral differences tell us that the magma itself was evolving," Pieterek explains. Since scientists cannot yet collect rock samples directly from Martian volcanoes, studies like this offer valuable information about the planet's interior. The findings demonstrate how powerful orbital observations can be for uncovering the hidden structure and long term evolution of volcanic systems, both on Mars and on other rocky worlds. Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.

Desert dino find, flu shot U‑turn, universal vaxx hope, air toxin warning By Kendra Pierre-Louis, Lee Billings, Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura You're listening to our weekly science news roundup. In a sudden turn of events last Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to review Moderna's new mRNA flu vaccine, according to the company. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. He said that if the FDA continues to behave this way it, quote, “threatens U.S. leadership in innovative medicines.” Speaking of innovative medicines, a new study published last Thursday describes a single vaccine that could offer protection against multiple respiratory illnesses at the same time. The work, led by a Stanford University researcher and published in the journal Science, takes a novel approach to vaccines, which since their earliest days have relied on something called antigen specificity. The adaptive immune system is our slower-acting, targeted defense mechanism. It also has memory so the next time we're exposed to that pathogen we know how to fight it off—that's one of the many benefits of this vaccine-development technique. The pathogen can mutate quickly or a new pathogen can pop up, rendering the vaccine less effective—that's what necessitates annual COVID and flu shots. But in this study, instead of focusing on mimicking aspects of viruses and bacteria, the researchers looked at the way immune cells communicate during an infection and imitated those signals. Under normal circumstances it can take days or even weeks for the adaptive immune system to kick in, but the innate immune system contains rapid-response generalists that react to an infection in minutes. They are the body's first line of defense against infection, but typically, that protection doesn't stick around very long. The researchers in this case developed an inhaled vaccine that is designed to stimulate both the adaptive immune system targeted by most vaccines as well as innate immune system cells in the lungs. The vaccine was tested in mice, who were given different dosages and then exposed to COVID-19 along with other coronaviruses that cause illnesses like the common cold. Mice who received three doses a week apart fared much better than their unvaccinated peers. That drastically lowered the mice's viral load, and any virus that snuck past was quickly greeted by a primed adaptive immune system. And there was another happy benefit: the mice also seemed to be less sensitive to respiratory allergies after inoculation. There are some caveats to this study, namely, that the research was done on mice, not humans, and the protection lasted about three months. Also on the theme of breathing a study published last Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine suggests that exposure to air pollution can directly increase one's chances of developing Alzheimer's. The study focused on a specific kind of fine particulate pollution called PM2.5, which refers to its maximum size of 2.5 micrometers, or roughly 30 times smaller than a strand of human hair. The tiny particles, which are often generated when we burn fossil fuels, have been linked to heart attacks and strokes. An Emory University team looked at nationwide health data for roughly 28 million Medicare beneficiaries who were 65 or older between 2000 and 2018. The researchers then compared that data with individuals' levels of PM2.5 pollution exposure. And while some of the conditions that are linked to PM2.5 are also risk factors for Alzheimer's, the researchers found that this pollution exposure increased Alzheimer's risk separately from those other comorbidities. In a press statement they said, “We found that long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution was associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease, largely through direct effects on the brain rather than through common chronic conditions such as hypertension, stroke, or depression.” Switching gears, the Artemis II moon mission had another wet dress rehearsal last Thursday. SciAm's senior space and physics editor, Lee Billings, is here with an update. The last time this happened, there were a lot of hydrogen leaks. It's one of the simplest molecules when you have two hydrogen atoms coming together. And they had lots of hydrogen leaks that caused delays for the last wet dress rehearsal that also cascaded into delaying the launch itself, which was supposed to take place in early February. Now, the good news, this time there have been no hydrogen leaks, which is shocking. It's remarkable that they've actually gotten this behemoth rocket to be fully loaded with fuel and not be venting hydrogen everywhere. There are certainly any number of things that could get in the way between now and when the launch window opens. We only have, really, about a week at the beginning of each month where it's gonna be feasible and ideal. What you need to remember is that this is the first human return to the moon since 1972. They will not be landing on the moon, this crew of four, but they will be going around it in what's called a free-return trajectory. And there's other firsts that are associated with this as well. Apparently, the Apollo astronauts only had bags and things like that to deal with. So lots of excitement, an adventure coming up, even though we won't actually be landing on the moon. Those future landing missions are supposed to start as early as mid-2027, but most people think that they will be delayed beyond that. And finally, we'll wrap things up with some dinosaur news. A paper published last Thursday in the journal Science details the discovery of a new spinosaurid species, Spinosaurus mirabilis. Their name comes from the fact that many species in the family had large bony spines on their backs, which formed sail-like structures. Perhaps the most famous spinosaurid is Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, who popped up in Jurassic Park III in an epic battle with a T. rex. When researchers first stumbled across fossils from Spinosaurus mirabilis in the Niger desert back in 2019 they didn't initially recognize it as a new species. Spinosaurid fossils have historically been found near the coast, so much so that some researchers theorized that the fish-eating dinosaurs may have been entirely aquatic. The fossil record, however, suggests that Spinosaurus mirabilis lived in a forested landscape crisscrossed by rivers. Tune in on Wednesday, when we explore the psychology behind polyamorous relationships. Science Quickly is produced by me, Kendra Pierre-Louis, along with Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news. She has worked for Gimlet, Bloomberg News and Popular Science. He is author of a critically acclaimed book, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars, which in 2014 won a Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. In addition to his work for Scientific American, Billings's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Wired, New Scientist, Popular Science and many other publications. Billings joined Scientific American in 2014 and previously worked as a staff editor at SEED magazine. Fonda Mwangi is an award-winning multimedia editor at Scientific American and producer of Science Quickly. She previously worked at Axios, the Recount and WTOP News. He has worked on projects for Bloomberg, Axios, Crooked Media and Spotify, among others. If you enjoyed this article, I'd like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history. I hope it does that for you, too. If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized. In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you'll support us in that mission. Subscribe to Scientific American to learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Nature Cities (2026)Cite this article Urbanization is affecting biodiversity globally. Biotic homogenization is often cited as a key consequence. However, our understanding of this phenomenon may be biased by flaws in the methods used to document it. Here we estimate compositional dissimilarity among 39 urban tree assemblages worldwide while controlling for differences among regional species pools. Our results demonstrated the absence of a distinct global pattern in urban tree homogenization or differentiation. Homogenization mainly occurred among urban tree assemblages across broad geographic distances, whereas differentiation occurred at short distances. Nonnative species were a major contributing factor to these patterns. Sharing different nonnative species contributed to differentiation at short distances, whereas sharing the same nonnative species contributed to homogenization at broad distances. Our findings reveal a scale-dependent effect of urbanization on urban tree assemblages driven by nonnative species, emphasizing the global influence of urbanization on spatial patterns of biodiversity. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $119.00 per year only $9.92 per issue Buy this article Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout The data that support the findings of this study are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30962240 (ref. All code used in the analysis for this study is publicly available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30962240 (ref. Simkin, R. D., Seto, K. C., McDonald, R. I. & Jetz, W. Biodiversity impacts and conservation implications of urban land expansion projected to 2050. Natl Acad. Padayachee, A. L. et al. How do invasive species travel to and through urban environments? Christen, S., Brockerhoff, E. G., Gossner, M. M. & Augustinus, B. A biosecurity perspective on urban trees in public and private spaces and trees available from nurseries. Urban For. Urban Green. McKinney, M. L. Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization. Yang, J. et al. The compositional similarity of urban forests among the world's cities is scale dependent. & Klotz, S. Urbanization and homogenization – comparing the floras of urban and rural areas in Germany. Olden, J. D., Leroy Poff, N., Douglas, M. R., Douglas, M. E. & Fausch, K. D. Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization. Trends Ecol. Lokatis, S. & Jeschke, J. M. Urban biotic homogenization: approaches and knowledge gaps. McKinney, M. L. & Lockwood, J. L. Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends Ecol. Niemelä, J. et al. Carabid beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) across urban–rural gradients: an international comparison. Van Nuland, M. E. & Whitlow, W. L. Temporal effects on biodiversity and composition of arthropod communities along an urban–rural gradient. Urban Ecosyst. Deng, J. et al. Urbanization drives biotic homogenization of the avian community in China. Aronson, M. F. J., Handel, S. N., La Puma, I. P. & Clemants, S. E. Urbanization promotes non-native woody species and diverse plant assemblages in the New York metropolitan region. Urban Ecosyst. Trentanovi, G. et al. Biotic homogenization at the community scale: disentangling the roles of urbanization and plant invasion. Lososová, Z. et al. Native and alien floras in urban habitats: a comparison across 32 cities of central Europe. La Sorte, F. A. et al. Beta diversity of urban floras among European and non-European cities. Aronson, M. F. et al. A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers. Baiser, B., Olden, J. D., Record, S., Lockwood, J. L. & McKinney, M. L. Pattern and process of biotic homogenization in the New Pangaea. La Sorte, F. A. et al. Distance decay of similarity among European urban floras: the impact of anthropogenic activities on β diversity. Olden, J. D. & Poff, N. L. Toward a mechanistic understanding and prediction of biotic homogenization. Wang, X. et al. Regional effects of plant diversity and biotic homogenization in urban greenspace – the case of university campuses across China. Urban For. Urban Green. Pelayo-Villamil, P. et al. Completeness of national freshwater fish species inventories around the world. Rosenblad, K. C. & Sax, D. F. A new framework for investigating biotic homogenization and exploring future trajectories: oceanic island plant and bird assemblages as a case study. Sjöman, H., Hirons, A. D. & Bassuk, N. L. Improving confidence in tree species selection for challenging urban sites: a role for leaf turgor loss. Urban Ecosyst. Yang, Q. et al. The global loss of floristic uniqueness. Lenzner, B. et al. Naturalized alien floras still carry the legacy of European colonialism. Brice, M.-H., Pellerin, S., Poulin, M. & Pysek, P. Does urbanization lead to taxonomic and functional homogenization in riparian forests?. McKinney, M. L. Species introduced from nearby sources have a more homogenizing effect than species from distant sources: evidence from plants and fishes in the USA. Olden, J. D. & Rooney, T. P. On defining and quantifying biotic homogenization. Daru, B. H. et al. Widespread homogenization of plant communities in the Anthropocene. Shackleton, C. M. & Gwedla, N. The legacy effects of colonial and apartheid imprints on urban greening in South Africa: spaces, species, and suitability. Enquist, B. J. et al. The commonness of rarity: global and future distribution of rarity across land plants. Geldmann, J., Jones, J. P. G., Wauchope, H. & Ferraro, P. J. Causal claims, causal assumptions and protected area impact. Brodie, J. F. et al. Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity. Page, M. J. et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. Beech, E., Rivers, M., Oldfield, S. & Smith, P. P. GlobalTreeSearch: the first complete global database of tree species and country distributions. Chamberlain, S. A. & Szöcs, E. taxize: taxonomic search and retrieval in R. F1000Res. Hijmans, R. J., Phillips, S., Leathwick, J. & Elith, J. dismo: species distribution modeling. R package version 1.1–4 (2017). Maitner, B. S. et al. The BIEN R package: a tool to access the Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) database. Methods Ecol. Michonneau, F. & Collins, M. ridigbio: Interface to the iDigBio data API. R package version 0.3.5 (2017). GBIF occurrence download. Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN). BIEN http://bien.nceas.ucsb.edu/bien (2019). Atlas of Living Australia: open access to Australia's biodiversity data. ALA https://www.ala.org.au/ (2019). Dornelas, M. et al. BioTIME: a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene. Dauby, G. et al. RAINBIO: a mega-database of tropical African vascular plants distributions. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio). iDigBio https://www.idigbio.org (2019). SpeciesLink http://www.splink.org.br (2019). Biodiversity information serving our nation. BISON https://bison.usgs.gov/ (2019). Jin, J. & Yang, J. BDcleaner: a workflow for cleaning taxonomic and geographic errors in occurrence data archived in biodiversity databases. GeoNames geographical database. GeoNames https://www.geonames.org (2019). Defourny, P. et al. Observed annual global land-use change from 1992 to 2020 three times more dynamic than reported by inventory-based statistics (in preparation) http://maps.elie.ucl.ac.be/CCI/viewer/download.php (ESA Climate Change Initiative–Land Cover project, 2023). Jin, J. & Yang, J. Effects of sampling approaches on quantifying urban forest structure. Urban Plan. Ugland, K. I., Gray, J. S. & Ellingsen, K. E. The species–accumulation curve and estimation of species richness. Hortal, J. & Lobo, J. M. An ED-based protocol for optimal sampling of biodiversity. Soberón, J., Jiménez, R., Golubov, J. & Koleff, P. Assessing completeness of biodiversity databases at different spatial scales. Lobo, J. M. Database records as a surrogate for sampling effort provide higher species richness estimations. Lobo, J. M. et al. KnowBR: an application to map the geographical variation of survey effort and identify well-surveyed areas from biodiversity databases. Lennon, J. J., Koleff, P., GreenwooD, J. J. D. & Gaston, K. J. The geographical structure of British bird distributions: diversity, spatial turnover and scale. Baselga, A. & Orme, C. D. L. betapart: an R package for the study of beta diversity. Methods Ecol. Vincenty, T. Direct and inverse solutions of geodesics on the ellipsoid with application of nested equations. Yang, X. et al. Homogenization and differentiation of urban tree assemblages globally. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30962240 (2025). Olson, D. M. et al. Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth. Download references We thank all the authors who contributed to our systematic literature review for sharing their data. We also thank the institutions that curate the biodiversity databases used in this study. The generous contributions made by these individuals and organizations made this study possible. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. These authors contributed equally: Xudong Yang, Jing Jin. Department of Earth System Science, Institute for Global Change Studies, Ministry of Education Ecological Field Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Xudong Yang, Xinyi Liu & Jun Yang Institute of Agricultural Information, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China Jing Jin Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Frank A. La Sorte Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Frank A. La Sorte School of Tourism Ecology and Environment, Guilin Tourism University, Guilin, China Pengbo Yan Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA Myla F. J. Aronson Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar and J.J. designed the research. and J.J. collected data. conducted the data analysis. produced the figures. All authors contributed to writing. Correspondence to Jun Yang. The authors declare no competing interests. Nature Cities thanks Benno Augustinus, Jian Zhang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary Methods, Fig. 1 and Tables 1–9. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Reprints and permissions Yang, X., Jin, J., Liu, X. et al. Homogenization and differentiation of urban tree assemblages globally. Nat Cities (2026). Download citation Accepted: 15 January 2026 Version of record: 23 February 2026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-026-00393-4 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative (Nat Cities) ISSN 2731-9997 (online) © 2026 Springer Nature Limited Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

When the small reef fish were given access to a mirror, they did more than simply recognize their reflections. They also began experimenting with the mirror using bits of food. The findings suggest these highly social fish are capable of a sophisticated cognitive process known as 'contingency testing,' a level of intelligence more commonly associated with marine mammals such as dolphins. The research team was led by Specially Appointed Researcher Shumpei Sogawa and Specially Appointed Professor Masanori Kohda at the Graduate School of Science. This new behavior emerged during mirror test experiments, a widely used method for studying animal cognition. Previous studies had already shown that cleaner wrasse can identify themselves in a mirror. "In earlier cleaner wrasse mirror studies, the procedure was typically the fish see a mirror for several days, they habituate to it and stop reacting socially, and a mark is added," Dr. Sogawa explained. The fish were likely aware of something unusual on their body, but they couldn't see it. When the mirror appeared, it immediately provided visual information that matched an existing bodily expectation, hence scraping occurred much faster." Some individuals picked up a small piece of shrimp from the tank floor, carried it upward, and intentionally released it near the mirror. Rather than testing the mirror with their own bodies, the fish used an outside object to observe how it behaved in reflected space. Similar actions have been documented in manta rays and dolphins, which release bubbles and observe them rising in a mirror. This type of deliberate exploration strengthens the argument that the cleaner wrasse's mirror behaviors reflect flexible, self-related processing rather than confusion or simple conditioning. "These findings in cleaner wrasse suggest that self-awareness may not have evolved only in the limited number of species that passed the mirror test but may be more widely prevalent across a broader range of taxonomic groups, including fish," Dr. Sogawa said. Looking ahead, the team believes that studying self-awareness across a wide range of animals, including invertebrates, will become increasingly important. "The findings from this research will likely influence not only academic issues, such as revising evolutionary theory and constructing concepts of self, but also directly impact matters relevant to our lives, including animal welfare, medical research, and even AI studies," Professor Kohda added. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. The Moon Is Still Shrinking and Scientists Just Found New Moonquake Zones Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.

A newly published study in Science announces the discovery of Spinosaurus mirabilis, a previously unknown species of spinosaurid dinosaur uncovered in Niger. The fossils were excavated in a remote region of the central Sahara by a 20 member research team led by Paul Sereno, PhD, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. When paleontologists first spotted the crest and several jaw fragments on the desert surface in November 2019, they did not immediately realize what they had found. It was only after returning in 2022 with a larger team and uncovering two more crests that the researchers understood they were dealing with a new species. Researchers believe the crest was brightly colored during the dinosaur's lifetime and arched upward like a curved blade, likely serving as a dramatic display structure. The skull also reveals tightly interlocking upper and lower teeth that formed an effective trap for slippery prey. This adaptation appears repeatedly in the fossil record among fish eating animals, including aquatic ichthyosaurs, semi aquatic crocodile and flying pterosaurs. Among dinosaurs, however, this feature distinguishes Spinosaurus and its closest relatives. Until now, most spinosaurid fossils had been recovered from coastal deposits close to ancient shorelines. That pattern led some researchers to suggest these fish eating theropods may have been fully aquatic predators that hunted underwater. The newly identified fossil site in Niger tells a different story. Nearby were partial skeletons of long necked dinosaurs preserved in river sediments, pointing to a forested inland environment crisscrossed by waterways. A 70 Year Old Clue Leads to the Sahara "No one had been back to that tooth site in over 70 years," Sereno said. "It was an adventure and a half wandering into the sand seas to search for this locale and then find an even more remote fossil area with the new species. During their search, the team encountered a Tuareg man who offered to guide them on his motorbike deep into the Sahara, where he had seen enormous fossil bones. With limited time before heading back to camp, the researchers collected teeth and jaw fragments belonging to the new Spinosaurus species. After excavating more than 100 tons of fossils over the years, he added, "If you can brave the elements and are willing to go after the unknown, you might just uncover a lost world." The discovery strengthens Niger's reputation as a major site for paleontology and archaeology. The museum will display the country's remarkable fossil heritage, including this newly identified spinosaur, along with artifacts from stone age cultures that lived in a once lush Green Sahara. Using that model, Sereno collaborated with paleoartist Dani Navarro in Madrid to produce a dramatic scene showing the new species competing over a coelacanth carcass. Additional paleoartists in Chicago (Jonathan Metzger) and Italy (Davide la Torre) animated Navarro's model, recreating the scene featured on the cover of Science. Beginning March 1, following publication of the Science paper, these replicas will join Sereno's Dinosaur Expedition exhibit at the Chicago Children's Museum. Young visitors will be among the first to see and handle representations of this newly discovered dinosaur. "Letting kids feel the excitement of new discoveries -- that's key to ensuring the next generation of scientists who will discover many more things about our precious planet worth preserving," Sereno said. Materials provided by University of Chicago Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. The Moon Is Still Shrinking and Scientists Just Found New Moonquake Zones Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.